Jeff Bezos may be a man of few words on social media, but through text messages, he has a way with words.
The billionaire Amazon CEO and his soon-to-be wife, Lauren Sánchez, stepped out publicly for the first time in May 2019. However, some cringe-worthy texts dating back to 2018 show the two began their relationship while still married to their previous partners.
According to The Associated Press, The National Enquirer blew the cover off Sánchez and Bezos in January 2019.
The outlet claimed Bezos sent Sánchez “sleazy text messages and gushing love notes.”
Some of the intimate messages have resurfaced.
Among those texts was a bizarre five-word statement from Bezos: “I love you alive, girl.”
Another more sexually direct message followed, “I will show you my body, and my lips and my eyes, very soon.”
The outing of the private messages and possible affair caused Bezos to seek action against the tabloid and its publisher, American Media Inc., or AMI and its owner, David Pecker.
AP reported that Bezos believed he was the target of “extortion and blackmail” by AMI and claimed the publisher went as far as threatening to publish “revealing” photos of him unless he ceased the investigation into how they obtained the private messages.
Tomorrow's cover: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos dropped bombshell blackmail allegations against the National Enquirer on Thursday https://t.co/lMdAFYxCpB pic.twitter.com/rd84iidfS7
— New York Post (@nypost) February 8, 2019
Bezos provided more insight into the investigation through a blog post on Medium. In the essay, he stated that he believed the outlet’s blackmail tactics were part of a bigger plan with political motives.
“Pecker recently entered into an immunity deal with the Department of Justice related to their role in the so-called “Catch and Kill” process on behalf of President Trump and his election campaign,” said Bezos.
Bezos, who is also the owner of The Washington Post, included transcripts of the correspondence between Pecker and members of the tabloid that were sent to him and his legal team.
One of the emails exposed was an exchange initiated by the Inquirer’s editor, Dylan Howard. It revealed that they had more photos of Bezos that they were ready to release, including several “below the belt” selfies and images of the billionaire in tight briefs and a towel. They also claimed to have salacious photos of Sanchez.
Bezos clarified that he wouldn’t fold under the pressures of alleged blackmail “despite the “personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.”
Later adding. “Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.”
The investigation never amounted to an entire legal battle but proved to be a clash of media titans and the extent to which one would go to expose or embarrass another.
Three years later, it was found that Sánchez’s brother, Michael Sanchez, was behind the leak of racy messages and images. The New York Post reported that he sold the information to the Enquirer for $200,000.
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 9, 2019
Bezos and his former wife of 25 years, MacKenzie Scott, announced their separation in January 2019 with a joint statement on X (then Twitter).
“As our family and close friends know, after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends,” the couple said.
The statement continued, “We feel incredibly lucky to have found each other and deeply grateful for every one of the years we have been married. If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again.”
